thanksgiving break 2011

I had four more days of break than others. I had only one ENGR 103 class on Monday morning, but I didn’t go there (overslept). That day I went to Wabash Landing movies to “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1”. This was boring, except the last scene, when Bella turns into a vampire. Then I went to “Happy Feet Two”. I was expecting it to be enthralling, but it did not meet my expectations. The first movie was better.

On Tuesday (or on Wednesday) three friends went to Aurora shopping mall. I was looking for a jacket, but I could not find anything I liked. The only thing I bought was a hat from GAP.

On Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving, (actually Kazakhs don’t celebrate it). It was just a “motive” to gather Kazakh students in one place. We went to a friend’s apartment and had turkey dinner.
At Black Friday I went to Chicago with the same guys. We went through Michigan Avenue; I bought a jacket at Columbia and two sweaters at Banana Republic. After shopping we drove to the Millenium Park. Then we took pictures with Marilyn Monroe sculpture.
On Saturday I went to play soccer. On Sunday evening I eventually was able to start writing an essay and finished it by 5 am. (I got extension for this assignment).

Study Abroad

I've learned that engineering's future is global, and that global aspect is needed to compete in the engineering world. With the help of the class engineering 103, I know for a fact that I am going to study abroad at least once during my years at Purdue. Even though I know Japanese I want to learn Portuguese. I can't even imagine how much fun it will be to go somewhere like Greece, Italy, Brazil or Australia. Why are there so many to choose from? I'm going to have to think about it a lot, but for sure at least once. I am pretty sure that I am going to drop one of my classes for next semester, so I have an open spot for a general ed class. I already have credit in Japanese but I still might take Portuguese one. Will it be hard? I'm pretty sure it will be one of the harder classes because I know learning a different language is tough, but what's harder than Purdue Engineering? The learning community was fun and I learned a lot. I just wish that we had more ways to talk about all our differences.

Dead Week

Its almost dead week! I am very excited, but at the same time I am very worried. I have to cram real hard for math and physics, but I'm scared I will totally not do any work because of the chance of having a great time without worrying about classes. Thank goodness I only have two exams, it would really suck if I had exams in every single class. One thing I don't understand is that apparently in my physics lectures next week we are still learning something on the first lecture that will be on the final and also have a long and boring lab. I just don't get it sometimes, it just seems that the physics department has no idea what they're doing. Anyways, I'm just going to pray that I will study hard for math and physics next week so I can hopefully get some decent scores on my finals.

Cross-cultural situations

Since I came to the U.S. I noticed several cross-cultural differences between the U.S. and my home country, Kazakhstan.

1) Most people here tend to smile when I look at them. At first, it seemed strange, then started to like it.

2) Students in American universities study hard, not like in my country. Here I see crowd of student in libraries, even at the weekends. In Kazakhstan, students “enjoy their lives”. They start to study just at the end of semester, when finals are approaching.

3)People in Kazakhstan usually eat hot meals. Here, as I noticed, people prefer fast food. In restaurants they order pizzas and hamburgers. Also, Kazakhs almost always have meat in their meals.

4)The next difference I noticed is about grass. In Kazakhstan usually there is prohibited to step on grass in public spaces. You may be fined or caught by police. Here I see students lying, sitting and playing on grass.

5) I was surprised when I first saw group of four-five people running in the street. In my country you won’t encounter this.

6) Bikes, skateboards… Here you may hit by biker in a campus. In Kazakhstan very few people ride bikes in the street, so they look unusual.

The black friday!

Huh! So I am finally here to post a blog after a long thanksgiving break. :D   Although I still do not feel like blogging and am still a sleepy head, but I have to share some interesting experiences all this weekend. I didn't go anywhere during the break. All I did was shopping, eating and sleeping. Obviously this week was full of discounts on all the stuff I always wanted buy, so how could I even miss this. I experienced shopping on a Black Friday for the first time. Reaching the mall at 9 pm on the Thanksgiving and then standing in long queues waiting for the stores to open. Trust me, I never thought that people will be so crazy to get into a particular showroom. The rushing of people in store as soon as it opened was so amusing lol. I stayed calm all the time. I am glad I got a lot many deals. The best part is that I finally have the snow boots :D
I returned back to may dorm at 9 in the morning. It was so much fun. Shopping for 12 hours. wow!
Hope you guys also had a great thanksgiving with your families. :)

A cross cultural situation observed!

At the university one can find a student from every part of the globe. And because of such multifarious people cross cultural differences are expected for sure. Since I have been here, I have observed several differences. The one I'll mention here is about the personal space. I have talked to many American and many Arabian friends here. Something I observed was that Americans prefer standing at least five feet a part while conversing, whereas Arabians prefer being closer. I didn't notice this on my very first meeting with them. It took me time.
I have seen several such differences in terms of religion and body language too. If one isn't aware about them, they surely lead to misunderstandings and to avoid them one should be aware of the trend of every culture.

Shoes Off

I have some friends in my residence hall who are full Asian. In Japan and in most Asian countries, you must take your shoes off when you enter anyone's house. My friends just finished cleaning their room and moved their beds around and a few guys from down the hall wanted to come in. They walked in with their shoes on. I looked at my friends and they didn't show much on their face, but I knew that it was different to them, so I politely asked the guys that they should take their shoes off. There were no tensions and they took off their shoes and continued their conversation. Its funny, because I assumed that people knew here because I have American friends from Japan who always take their shoes off when they enter someone's house. I'm completely fine if people make the mistake once or twice, but they just need to learn.

Classes, Part 1. Calc 2 and Physics.

At the beginning of this semester these two classes were the easiest classes. I even tested out Calc 1 after the first week, then I started to Calc2 which also seemed not difficult. I was thinking to get “A” in these courses. Even both these classes were time consuming because of homework (less time than engr131 though), I handled them with ease. I got almost 100% in the first midterm exams. But it was just the beginning… Topics started to get more difficult. Second exams were worse, third ones … I don’t know their results yet.

In physics I am trying not to lose points in homework, recitations, labs, lecture iclickers, because each point counts. I felt disappointed once I was late to a lecture and missed one iclicker question. Then I was more upset when I and my teammate cannot get all the checkpoints in a recitation. In Calc 2 things are even worse. I completely failed my last midterm (expecting about 50). But I still have two finals, in which I will do my best. Will try.

Problems in Africa

I still imagine Africa as savannahs and jungles with abundant wild animal population. But when it comes to engineering in Africa, I have no idea what it is like in this continent. It seems Africa has natural resources, but nobody utilize them. The main reason of this is poverty. According to UN, 34 of 50 poorest nations in the world are located in Africa. In my opinion, being so poor, governments of these countries do not think about utilizing their natural resources.

Even if the African countries receive investments from the West, this money is not spent properly by governments. Due to wars in countries like Ethiopia and Kenya, governments buy weapons. Another reason might be dictators who do not care about country’s welfare.

Some engineering solution that work in the West, does not apply in Africa. The reason might be unique climate and landscape of Africa. These two have negative effect on constructions.

Africa

Africa consists of many resources like mineral ores, petroleum, and arable land but it seems like they are not utilized. Based off one website, there are many foreign countries in Africa "helping" the poor and basically taking these resources free of charge. Africa depends on the West to utilize the resources, but the sad thing is that they take advantage of of the continent and basically steal all the resources. An example is the selling of cocoa beans in the Ivory Coast. They are sold real cheap to the West and then sold expensive to the people in the Ivory Coast. If this system changes, resources can be utilized correctly.

Next is the education and agriculture in Africa. Apparently, the government in Africa do not put much effort into education and agriculture and only care about themselves. If this is true and if the government decided to change its ways of running a country, engineering solutions might work, and resources can be utilized. When it comes to massive investment in foreign aid, all the money does not go to the poor people. Transportation, feeding and other expenses cut into the donations that are given.

Changing Majors

I've been thinking a lot about changing majors, but I'm worried that I'm only saying this because of the courses that are required to get into my desired school of engineering. I plan to go aeronautical and become a pilot in the future, but I don't know if engineering is the right way or engineering technology. I've looked over the plan of study for AAE students and it sounds very interesting, especially the courses you can choose to focus on like low flight gravity experience or propulsion. I looked over the Aeronautical Engineering Technology plan of study and it also seemed interesting because starting second semester we actually start learning about flight. I do not know what to do and what makes it worse is that we have to choose classes for next semester next Monday! Hopefully I make the right decision and I get the time to talk to some advisers about my plans for the future.

Approaching the end of semester!

Just a month from now and I'll be in Seattle. Yay! I am glad that the semester is about to end. Trust me, I never realized where did the three months go. Sometimes I feel,"Wasn't it just yesterday when I entered into this university?". A wonderful bunch of friends and the interesting course material made me pass through. :) 

I am done with my third chemistry exam and all set for the weekend and of course Thanksgiving. I haven't thought of doing anything during the holidays except sleeping. I am sleep deprived and hopefully will manage my semester's sleep  this time lol.

All my friends are returning home during the winter break. I do feel jealous and bad because I wanna meet my family and friends too, but then I console myself by saying,"Dharna, you'll have so much more fun than your friends will. You'll go skydiving!". :D

I am go eager to experience new experiences!

Study Abroad

Honestly, I have no idea what kind of study abroad program I would choose. During the week, I received (I’m sure you did too) an email from the Global Engineering Program saying that there were study abroad opportunities in multiple countries. On top of that, there are so many other study programs you can choose. Check out the Study abroad web site. There are over 300 programs. How do you choose?

That‘s not the only concern I have regarding the Study abroad Program. In fact I’m wondering if going to another for a semester will have any effect on my GPA because of different ways of teaching courses. Before coming here, I was in a small French-medium school (So I’m kind of already studying abroad). It took me a few weeks to get know how to learn course efficiently and comprehensively. This adjustment period has cost me a few good grades (e.g in Physics).

I was wondering if this would apply if I went for a Study Abroad.